Take Note: a look back at the week in education news (Vol. 15)

Samuel Rotibi, a junior at Gateway High School in Aurora, looks forward to frat parties, “decent food” and taking more responsibility for his choices at CSU (Joe Amon/The Denver Post)

Examining how much college does (and doesn’t) pay, testing reform inertia, a notable retirement on Colfax Avenue, charter schools called into account over special ed and more feature in this week’s Take Note …

A matter of degrees: How much do earnings matter when making a college choice? State Department of Higher Education officials say it’s a top concern, and this week’s introduction of a new online tool called EdPays allows students to seamlessly compare and contrast their future earnings across certificate type, field of study and institution. For its press event introducing EdPays, the department turned to Gateway High School in Aurora, which has found success steering students to college. Maybe it was random — or maybe it’s the message from the school — but every student we talked to was planning to pursue a bachelor’s degree. I talked for a while with Rose Mirceska, a well-spoken recent arrival from Macedonia with dyed red hair. She is thinking about studying sociology and criminal justice. I asked her why she would choose a four-year degree from CSU over a cheaper, quicker community college certificate or degree that could give her more bang for her buck. Easy explanation — cobbling together scholarships and financial aid, she got a full ride to CSU.

Testing, testing: It’s been a week of non-action on the testing front as the three major remaining testing reform bills keep getting delayed. We wrote something about nothing. Actually, a lot is happening, it’s just behind the scenes as lawmakers try to figure out a way forward. The main hangups on testing reduction are whether the keep 9th grade PARCC English and math tests mandatory, and the scope to which local districts will be allowed to experiment with developing their own assessments. Those are awfully big gaps and the lawmakers are running out of time to bridge them. The House Education Committee is scheduled to vote Friday on the opt-out bill after taking testimony earlier this week, and the House and Senate test reduction bills have once again been scheduled for a final vote. We shall see …

National report card: Speaking of tests, this week we learned the results of the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. AP’s Kimberly Hefling documents the results here, which sound familiar … Students did better overall in U.S. history and civics than their predecessors in the 1990s, but geography scores have remained stagnant since 1994. Take a stab at the sample questions. The results comes as Colorado appears poised to get rid of state social studies tests that debuted this academic year.

Hammond on Hammond: Last Friday was crazy busy on the education beat, and the biggest news was the announced retirement of Colorado Education Commission Robert Hammond. As our story notes, Hammond has won praise for changing the culture of the department and hiring really smart people. Tensions with the board have been on display in recent months, but Hammond brushed that off as part of the job and not a factor in his decision. We also pulled out some of Hammond’s comments into a separate blog post.

Poor and proud to say so:This American RadioWorks piece notes that a decade ago, “you’d be hard-pressed to find college students who would talk openly about being poor.” That is no longer the case, at least among those taking part in a growing movement of “first generation” student clubs on college campuses wearing their socioeconomic status like a badge of honor.

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